Ready to help students succeed in the workforce of the future?
Every school would love to have a team of educators who can captivate the next generation of scientists, engineers, and innovators. Good STEM instruction is a major key to:
- Increased student engagement
- Better preparation for STEM careers
Here’s the catch:
Qualified STEM teachers are hard to find and retain. And even veteran educators need help creating effective STEM instruction if they haven’t received quality STEM education professional development training.
STEM classrooms can fall behind without proper professional development.
This complete guide breaks down the best practices for STEM education professional development. If you’re ready to build high-quality training that transforms your school’s student outcomes, keep reading!
What you’ll learn:
- Why STEM Teacher Training is More Important Than Ever
- The State of STEM Education: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
- What STEM Professional Development Looks Like: The Strategies that Work
- Building an Effective STEM Training Program
Why STEM Teacher Training is More Important Than Ever
STEM education professional development yields significant benefits for schools and students. If you’re on the fence about teacher training, check out the three must-know reasons below.
Improve Student Achievement
Professional development is a top strategy to boost STEM student outcomes.
Why? Better training means higher quality lessons for students. When teachers learn the best practices for hands-on learning and real-world applications, education sticks with students.
Essentially, higher quality instruction from qualified educators leads to better student achievement.
Resources like Steve Spangler show how STEM education professional development leads to more effective engagement with students through experiential and inquiry-based learning. Those strategies teach educators how to bring STEM subjects to life beyond textbooks.
Makes sense, right? Trained and confident teachers are better equipped to be effective educators.
Help Schools Overcome the Teacher Shortage Crisis
Think of STEM professional development as retention insurance for your teachers.
Schools need to know that they can retain STEM staff before investing in hiring more educators. Teachers who receive continued support with training know their schools are committed to them.
For example, up to half of new STEM teachers quit the profession within five years of employment. That turnover rate is a massive problem for both schools and students.
Tip: A key to retention is investing in professional development that keeps teachers in the classroom longer and gives them the skills and confidence to succeed rather than burn out.
Standardise Quality
An overlooked benefit of STEM teacher training is the standardisation of instruction quality. Professional development builds consistency across classrooms.
When all teachers go through the same high-quality training programme, students have access to excellent STEM instruction no matter the class or teacher. Your school’s students won’t have a learning lottery based on whether they have the “good” science teacher.
Research shows that schools that invest in thorough teacher training programmes benefit from:
- Improved test scores
- Higher student engagement
- Increased interest in STEM careers
Win-win, right?
The State of STEM Education: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
STEM teacher training is unlike other types of professional development. The need for qualified STEM educators far outpaces the availability of those teachers.
Shortages include:
- Mathematics
- Science
- Technology
- Engineering
Securing highly-qualified STEM teachers is hard enough as-is. But retaining them?
The key to STEM education professional development success is holistic. Teachers need both content-specific training and pedagogy to do their best work.
That contrasts with subjects in which teachers may only require one off refresher course in the latest updates or techniques. STEM education changes quickly. Teachers need ongoing, sustainable professional development to keep up.
What STEM Professional Development Looks Like: The Strategies that Work
Now for the good stuff: actual strategies that work.
Used by the top-performing schools in the industry, these strategies will set you up to build a world-class STEM training programme if you apply them consistently.
Hands-On Workshop Training
In a sentence: Practice makes perfect.
Here’s why: When it comes to STEM teacher development, the best way to improve instruction is through doing. Hands-on workshops allow educators to learn by doing just as their students should.
Workshops are effective when they include:
- Active experimentation and trial with different STEM materials
- Collaborative problem-solving and reflection
- Lesson planning time for teachers to design their own STEM activities
- Peer feedback and discussions
The biggest mistake we see with STEM teacher training programmes is too many lectures. Passive listening to presenters is rarely a recipe for tangible change in the classroom.
Workshops need to be highly interactive with time for reflection and practice.
Mentorship Programmes
We have another favourite strategy from high-performing schools to share.
Here’s how it works: Find veterans in your school’s STEM departments and pair them with less experienced teachers. Allow experts to share their knowledge while also encouraging new teachers to offer fresh perspectives.
Simple right? Veteran STEM teachers provide support and tips while new teachers feel valued for their input. Both benefit from the relationships formed.
Tip: Start by identifying top mentors in each department and create a meeting schedule and goals for each pair.
Ongoing Coaching Support
If you’re looking for an easier way to sustain growth, you might enjoy instructional coaching.
The problem with most professional development? It happens in one-off workshops. Support ends when teachers leave the training and face an unprepared student or classroom.
The beauty of coaching is that the process happens all year long.
Two of our favourite approaches to coaching programmes include:
- Peer observation cycles
- Expert coaching sessions
Both options provide teachers with an element of accountability and continued improvement.
Community Building
Building professional learning communities is transformational over time.
It’s not uncommon for educators to feel isolated in their classrooms. Allowing teachers to connect with each other over common STEM education problems and solutions creates powerful change for professional development.
Set up time each week (or each month) for:
- Lesson sharing
- Collaborative problem-solving sessions
- Resource exchange
Teachers grow their skills with every opportunity they have to collaborate with one another.
Wrapping Things Up
We gave you the powerful strategies to build effective STEM teaching programmes. The reality is that professional development takes a commitment of both time and resources to create change.
If you’re not ready to launch a full programme?
Lots of schools supplement their internal training with outside organisations. External partnerships provide expertise that would be difficult to build otherwise.
But a quick reminder…
Before you start any professional development programme, be sure to assess your teachers’ needs first and set clear goals. Effective STEM education professional development starts with knowing gaps exist and then building customised solutions to fill those voids.
The investment is well worth it through the improved student outcomes, teacher retention, and preparedness your classrooms will see.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is STEM education professional development?
STEM education professional development is training programmes designed to improve teacher skills and efficacy in STEM instruction.
Why is STEM teacher training important?
STEM teacher training is vital because of the direct impact qualified teachers have on student achievement. Good teachers create engaging lessons to better prepare students for their future careers.
How long should professional development programmes be?
The most effective professional development lasts over time. Ongoing training with multiple sessions throughout the school year is more effective than one-off workshops.
What makes STEM training effective?
Effective STEM training includes hands-on activities, collaboration, and reflection. Teachers need immediate opportunities to put what they are learning to use.
